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Nobody likes to hear the word “no.” Rejection can be a tough pill to swallow and I’ve had my share of both big and small rejections since I started this job. “No” can seem like the end or can simply be the catalyst to make you try a different path and eventually accomplish the goal in a different and better way.
Take for example my recent application to get the 1936 Olympic Gold Medal Globe Refiners Basketball Team honored as an 8 Wonders of Kansas History. I was really excited because I think it’s the best shot we’ve had in any of the categories, but we didn’t make the cut for the top 24. Does that mean the story of this history-making team isn’t worthy of being told? Absolutely not. So instead of using the publicity from 8 Wonders, McPherson has just got to work harder at getting our story out on our own.
Another project I’m working on that has been meeting with some challenges lately is to paint a mural downtown this summer. I’ve been lucky to work with some great people on this project, but the site we selected has presented some real logistical challenges and the subject matter – industrial history – has been a surprisingly hard nut to crack outside of the history of the plastics industry. I still like the idea and the location but it is a much bigger project than I can pull off successfully in the next two months.
The two disappointments have got me thinking – why not do a more manageable mural about the Globe Refiners this year and shelve the other until next year? Let’s create our own publicity, toot our own horn and move forward. There will be more information available in the next month about how you can get involved and help with this project.
Another great McPherson event that’s coming up is our 97th Annual All Schools Day week of activities. I have a child who will participate in the Madathon for the first time this year and I can’t wait. During the week I’m sure we’ll hit the carnival and go to the May Fete activities. We’ll of course go to the parade and finish the week off at the free movie in the park Saturday night. Friendship and Memories seems like the perfect theme for this year’s event. I have buttons and T-shirts for sale at my office if you’d like to get a souvenir. Buttons are required at all ASD activities so be sure you have yours. You can find more information about All Schools Day at www.allschoolsday.com.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The Cherry on Top Department (& whatnot)
I attended a talk by Creative Cities Founder Peter Kageyama to day at the McPherson Opera House. There were about 90 people there -- a pretty good turnout for 7:30 on a rainy day I thought.
Peter, I'm gonna call him that because that's how he introduced himself to me not because we're close friends or anything, spoke about how creativity and innovation are the natural resources of the 21st Century, similar to how oil was THE natural resource of the 20th Century.
Creativity is standardly associated with artists while innovation is more linked to business and science. Creativity is a divergent process that begins a project. Innovation is a convergent process that creates an end product. Peter feels creativity and innovation are really two sides of the same coin and Apple is the best example of blurring the lines between the two.
It's the responsibility of all citizens to share their ideas and participate in the creative process.
Creative Cities will do their best to attract and retain talent and fight "brain drain." But who's job is it to attract talent to a city? The mayor can be a community's best salesman but very few people but company's don't traditionally have a director of talent.
The competition for talent has become a "shooting war," according to Peter. He gave the example of Louisville, KY's mayor who will hold Kentucky meet-ups in other states to try and attract Kentucky natives to return home. Brains don't drain, they circulate and tend to come back to the community they grew up in.
Cities looking for talent should not focus on just one age group. Recent grads, young professionals, marrieds with children, empty nesters and retirees all tend to look for the same things in a community -- namely affordable housing, entertainment opportunities, transportation options beyond a car and green spaces.
Then he talked about growing your own elephants, fostering krill as well as whales. Despite the mixed metaphors I think his point was to encourage young talent to develop and someday create a large successful company as opposed to going after a whale-sized company in another community.
Ways of appealing to young talent are to appeal to their tribal tendencies, seek out and connect with an influential member of their group and let him or her spread the word. Young talent does not believe advertising and are much more likely to believe what their friends have to say via social media.
My favorite part had to be the Love Notes to a City portion of his speech. He said the reasons we tend to hate a city are that it has problems with its infrastructure -- potholes, lack of parking. The reasons we love a city are the little touches like murals, parks, green spaces -- the cherries on top. Great quote: "Art and culture are what make a city fall in love with itself." Pier Giorgio Dicicco. It's important we take an expansive view of arts and culture -- it's not always packaged in the traditional forms of symphony, opera and ballet. Another good quote: "Museums are the mausoleums where art goes to die." I was sitting next to the McPherson Museum Director Carla Barber who got a chuckle out of that.
What did I take away from the lecture? I found it very helpful that Peter reinforced some of the sentiments and initiatives I've been working hard on this last year. I am a city department and while I can't improve the infrastructure I can help improve the quality of life with the small projects I take on like movies in the park, grants to help others market or stage events, hanging banners around town, holding photo contests and more. In the past the CVB adopted the stance that its job was strictly to promote and market events already taking place. I want to get more involved in hosting festivals and other events that would draw visitors to town. To do this, I need a healthy guest tax revenue, a supportive commission and the creativity and innovation necessary to think of new ideas and opportunities. Having those things is why I love my job so much.
Peter, I'm gonna call him that because that's how he introduced himself to me not because we're close friends or anything, spoke about how creativity and innovation are the natural resources of the 21st Century, similar to how oil was THE natural resource of the 20th Century.
Creativity is standardly associated with artists while innovation is more linked to business and science. Creativity is a divergent process that begins a project. Innovation is a convergent process that creates an end product. Peter feels creativity and innovation are really two sides of the same coin and Apple is the best example of blurring the lines between the two.
It's the responsibility of all citizens to share their ideas and participate in the creative process.
Creative Cities will do their best to attract and retain talent and fight "brain drain." But who's job is it to attract talent to a city? The mayor can be a community's best salesman but very few people but company's don't traditionally have a director of talent.
The competition for talent has become a "shooting war," according to Peter. He gave the example of Louisville, KY's mayor who will hold Kentucky meet-ups in other states to try and attract Kentucky natives to return home. Brains don't drain, they circulate and tend to come back to the community they grew up in.
Cities looking for talent should not focus on just one age group. Recent grads, young professionals, marrieds with children, empty nesters and retirees all tend to look for the same things in a community -- namely affordable housing, entertainment opportunities, transportation options beyond a car and green spaces.
Then he talked about growing your own elephants, fostering krill as well as whales. Despite the mixed metaphors I think his point was to encourage young talent to develop and someday create a large successful company as opposed to going after a whale-sized company in another community.
Ways of appealing to young talent are to appeal to their tribal tendencies, seek out and connect with an influential member of their group and let him or her spread the word. Young talent does not believe advertising and are much more likely to believe what their friends have to say via social media.
My favorite part had to be the Love Notes to a City portion of his speech. He said the reasons we tend to hate a city are that it has problems with its infrastructure -- potholes, lack of parking. The reasons we love a city are the little touches like murals, parks, green spaces -- the cherries on top. Great quote: "Art and culture are what make a city fall in love with itself." Pier Giorgio Dicicco. It's important we take an expansive view of arts and culture -- it's not always packaged in the traditional forms of symphony, opera and ballet. Another good quote: "Museums are the mausoleums where art goes to die." I was sitting next to the McPherson Museum Director Carla Barber who got a chuckle out of that.
What did I take away from the lecture? I found it very helpful that Peter reinforced some of the sentiments and initiatives I've been working hard on this last year. I am a city department and while I can't improve the infrastructure I can help improve the quality of life with the small projects I take on like movies in the park, grants to help others market or stage events, hanging banners around town, holding photo contests and more. In the past the CVB adopted the stance that its job was strictly to promote and market events already taking place. I want to get more involved in hosting festivals and other events that would draw visitors to town. To do this, I need a healthy guest tax revenue, a supportive commission and the creativity and innovation necessary to think of new ideas and opportunities. Having those things is why I love my job so much.
Friday, February 19, 2010
volunteermcpherson.com offers a chance to help
I’ve often marveled after a big meal, how much quicker things get cleaned up when everyone pitches in and helps. It reminds me of that saying “Many hands make light work.”
One of the biggest challenges of putting on any event whether it be Sunday dinner or a two-day festival is finding enough volunteers to help with all that needs to be done.
Local organizers of sports tournaments have told me finding volunteers is always a hurdle to putting on a tournament.
When I worked at the Sentinel, I would hear from readers that were looking for volunteer opportunities. At the CVB we look for volunteers for different activities all year and rely on the goodwill of the local newspaper and radio station to help get the word out.
It’s a struggle on both ends and I’ve kept my eye out for a way to bring the two groups together. Finally the solution came to me a few months ago. As a member of the Optimist Club I was introduced to a wonderful online tool for organizing sign-ups – mysignup.com. It’s free and anyone can use it, they just need access to a computer.
The catch is it’s not always easy to search out opportunities in your community so my office has created a Web site that is meant to act as a clearinghouse for organizations needing volunteer help. That site, called volunteermcpherson.com, simply lists and links to different sign-ups.
If your organization is in need of volunteers from the general public, I encourage you to use the Web sites.
Here’s how it works
· Go to mysignup.com and create an account
· Create as many volunteer sign-ups as you like.
· Then e-mail me the links for your sign-ups and I’ll add it to volunteermcpherson.com. My e-mail is cvb@mcphersonks.org.
Have questions? Contact me at the CVB, 241-3340, and remember, April is National Volunteer month.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Tough times for some, opportunities for others
One of the first things I did after starting this job last year was attend the Kansas City Travel and Culinary Expo in Overland Park. It was the first time the show had been offered in KC and I got a last minute deal on a booth so I thought "Hey, why not?"
The show was aimed at consumers looking for vacation ideas and, for my first show, I thought it was well attended and I met many other CVBs.
So when the chance to attend it again this year came up, I jumped on board and have been looking forward to it. Unfortunately the show was recently canceled based on poor attendance at a similar show in Louisville. I only found this out by combing the internet trying to see why my confirmation had never arrived, but I was intrigued by the lengthy explanation from the show's organizers as to why they canceled the show that was posted on their Web site. Here's a few snippets:
"tourism, like many industries, is being hurt by the global economic crisis. State revenue from transportation, sales and hotel taxes have plummeted and many companies and government agencies, have been forced to lay off workers."
This statement may hold true in many parts of the country, but I wondered if this was the case in Kansas. I pulled up reports on guest tax collected in 2008 and compared them to similar reports for 2009 in search of the plummeting hotel taxes. For fiscal year 2008 (July through June), $31.2 million was collected in guest tax. For fiscal year 2009, $30.8 million was collected statewide. That's about a one percent decrease. The previous two years saw gains of 19.7 percent and 10.1 percent. So while revenue isn't growing at the same rate as previous years, it is holding fairly steady. McPherson has been fortunate to see an increase each of the last three fiscal years -- partly due to an increase in the number of hotel rooms available after Holiday Inn Express was built.
My foray into statistics has convinced me that 1) I didn't major in math for a reason and 2) people are still traveling, just maybe not as far. While that's bad news for Disney, it's good news for places like McPherson.
Here's another snippet:
"the emotional impact of living through the worst recession many consumers had experienced, continuing high unemployment and the fact that our economic bubbles have all burst -- will create a new consumer who spends money more conscientiously."
Sounds like a gloomy forecast or maybe the forecaster just needs a vacation. McPherson has many family-friendly activities and weekend getaway options. Swimming, golf, music venues, fun festivals like All Schools Day and the Scottish Festival, a beautiful downtown with unique shopping are all part of our affordable charm.
One great source for finding affordable local travel in Kansas is through the Kansas Sampler Foundation's new rural travel initiative Web site www.getruralkansas.org. Each participating town posts information about what there is to explore in their town. Locals always know the best places to go and this gives them a platform to get that information out to the world.
I've recently had the opportunity to work with the Sampler ladies on their most recent 8 Wonders contest. Maxwell Wildlife Refuge near Canton has been nominated as one of the top 24 finalist in the 8 Wonders of Kansas Geography. You can vote for Maxwell and learn something about the other 23 finalists at 8wonders.org.
You may have heard about the city's recent acquisition of Turkey Creek Golf Course. If you'd like to find out about the 2010 rates, current specials or see some great pictures of our fine course, visit www.golfturkeycreek.com or www.facebook.com/turkeycreek.
The show was aimed at consumers looking for vacation ideas and, for my first show, I thought it was well attended and I met many other CVBs.
So when the chance to attend it again this year came up, I jumped on board and have been looking forward to it. Unfortunately the show was recently canceled based on poor attendance at a similar show in Louisville. I only found this out by combing the internet trying to see why my confirmation had never arrived, but I was intrigued by the lengthy explanation from the show's organizers as to why they canceled the show that was posted on their Web site. Here's a few snippets:
"tourism, like many industries, is being hurt by the global economic crisis. State revenue from transportation, sales and hotel taxes have plummeted and many companies and government agencies, have been forced to lay off workers."
This statement may hold true in many parts of the country, but I wondered if this was the case in Kansas. I pulled up reports on guest tax collected in 2008 and compared them to similar reports for 2009 in search of the plummeting hotel taxes. For fiscal year 2008 (July through June), $31.2 million was collected in guest tax. For fiscal year 2009, $30.8 million was collected statewide. That's about a one percent decrease. The previous two years saw gains of 19.7 percent and 10.1 percent. So while revenue isn't growing at the same rate as previous years, it is holding fairly steady. McPherson has been fortunate to see an increase each of the last three fiscal years -- partly due to an increase in the number of hotel rooms available after Holiday Inn Express was built.
My foray into statistics has convinced me that 1) I didn't major in math for a reason and 2) people are still traveling, just maybe not as far. While that's bad news for Disney, it's good news for places like McPherson.
Here's another snippet:
"the emotional impact of living through the worst recession many consumers had experienced, continuing high unemployment and the fact that our economic bubbles have all burst -- will create a new consumer who spends money more conscientiously."
Sounds like a gloomy forecast or maybe the forecaster just needs a vacation. McPherson has many family-friendly activities and weekend getaway options. Swimming, golf, music venues, fun festivals like All Schools Day and the Scottish Festival, a beautiful downtown with unique shopping are all part of our affordable charm.
One great source for finding affordable local travel in Kansas is through the Kansas Sampler Foundation's new rural travel initiative Web site www.getruralkansas.org. Each participating town posts information about what there is to explore in their town. Locals always know the best places to go and this gives them a platform to get that information out to the world.
I've recently had the opportunity to work with the Sampler ladies on their most recent 8 Wonders contest. Maxwell Wildlife Refuge near Canton has been nominated as one of the top 24 finalist in the 8 Wonders of Kansas Geography. You can vote for Maxwell and learn something about the other 23 finalists at 8wonders.org.
You may have heard about the city's recent acquisition of Turkey Creek Golf Course. If you'd like to find out about the 2010 rates, current specials or see some great pictures of our fine course, visit www.golfturkeycreek.com or www.facebook.com/turkeycreek.
Opera House opening creates excitement
Can you feel the excitement in the air? It’s not from a post-holiday giving buzz but I’m incredibly excited about the upcoming opening of the McPherson Opera House at the end of this month.
First the fact the Opera House will bring in many new visitors to town makes me a happy CVB director. I’m lucky to get to work with my predecessor Judy Casey on marketing the first season of shows at the Opera House. Judy is just one of the many volunteers that has brought the Opera House back to life. I’d love to run through a list of them all but I’m afraid I’d overlook someone. You can volunteer at the Opera House too by calling 241-1952.
Second, I’m anxious to see a show in the remodeled auditorium. Though the grand opening will be for private donors, there will be ample opportunity in the coming months to see a show. Here’s the most recent list I have of scheduled shows for 2010.
Jan. 30 Free movies
Feb. 14 Tap Kids
Mar. 9 David Munnelly Band
Mar. 12-13 Cats Off Broadway
Mar. 20 Comedian James Gregory
Apr. 23 Brasil Guitar Duo
May 15 The Eric Vaughn Magic Review
June 12 The Three Little Pigs, Wichita Children’s Theater
June 19, 20, 25, 26, & 27 The Wizard of Oz, McPherson Community Theatre
Sept. 18 The Glenn Miller Orchestra
Oct. 2 Galactic Cowboy Orchestra
Keep up-to-date on the latest shows at mcphersonoperahouse.org.
January through March is typically a slow time of year for tourism in McPherson. We are firing up the trolley during those months for historical trolley tours for elementary, middle and high school classes. If you’d like to sponsor a tour for your child’s class at an extremely affordable rate, give me a call at (620) 241-3340.
JANUARY CONVENTIONS, REUNIONS, & TOURS
14-17 VFW Mid Winter Conference, Holiday Inn Express, 25 rooms
21-23 Sunflower Chapter NAIFA, Holiday Inn Express, 20 rooms
29 Days Inn, 20 rooms
Friday, October 30, 2009
The best reward
In every community I visit I always make a point of stopping and looking at murals that I see painted on the sides of buildings. As a tourism promoter, my job is to get people to come to town, not just pass through it, but stop and stay a while. So it wasn't a big stretch to see the opportunity for murals in downtown McPherson. There is no shortage of big blank walls downtown and we are fortunate enough to have a mural painting class at Central Christian College. I love when the opportunity to use a local resource to create something that is not only a draw for tourists but something that can improve the quality of life of the residents comes up. It's the best reward of my job.
Keep your eyes peeled for a new downtown mural next summer. If you own a building and would like to participate in our mural program, give me a call at 620-241-3340.
Keep your eyes peeled for a new downtown mural next summer. If you own a building and would like to participate in our mural program, give me a call at 620-241-3340.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
It takes a village to promote a village
I’ve been diligently trying to get my house ready to sell, fixing all the little things that I’ve ignored since we moved in. My four-year-old Jake, with the best intentions, decided to help me out by peeling the wallpaper on the stairway last week. While I’m sure Jake’s heart was in the right place, he wasn’t all that helpful, especially since peeling the wallpaper was not on my fix-up list.
As we sought out volunteers to cover the McPherson booth for 10 days at the State Fair in Hutchinson (check out Kelsey and Jo from KBBE, just two of our volunteers), I came across that same helpful spirit in many members of our community. It got me thinking how it really does take a village to promote a village.
Many of the events I attend to promote McPherson require the cooperation of many businesses and individuals. Here’s just a few examples:
· Holiday group tour planner in Oklahoma: Graber’s Ace Hardware loaned us Christmas lights and a Christmas village lighthouse, Cook’s Nook loaned us painted snowman plates, mugs and bowls, The Bookshelf let us use brass courthouse ornaments to decorate our tree and Artshirt had some great KU and K-State snowmen to set out.
· Great Bend Women’s Expo: The list is long here as we tried to pamper the ladies at this event and entice them to come to Mac for a ladies day out trip. Cook’s Nook gift basket for a door prize, Integrity Salon, Java John’s, Courtyard on Main, Rural Rooster, Stone Chimney, Brushes N Bling, Sassy Bags, The Cake Lady and Creative Hairlines.
What is great about businesses helping the CVB with donations is that we are able to distribute information for them to a group they might otherwise be unable to reach.
There are plenty of opportunities in the near future to partner with the CVB on events. The trolley holiday lights tours are coming up in December. We plan to have public tours on Thursdays starting from the Opera House again this year, but we’d also like to add another night during the week for tours since they sold out so quickly last year. If your business, group, church or school would like to host one of these tours and provide refreshments and possibly entertainment, let me know. We plan to continue our movies in the park next summer. If you’d like to sponsor a movie, give me a call. If you have an idea of your own for a community event – be it entertainment or sports-related, I’m always open to new ideas.
Remember, no man is an island, and if he was, good luck promoting it without a little help from the natives.
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